Mastering the Hidden Force that Undermines Health & Happiness

Having recently read Joel Furhman's Eat to Live, I have already been convinced by the data supporting this book's dietary recommndations. What Lisle & Goldhamer offer are penetrating insights into why we are so reluctant to change our eating habits. Explaining our reluctance in terms of our most basic biological drives, motivations that we share with every living species on the planet, was remarkable. Each chapter holds a couple of "gems" where I thought, "That makes perfect sense--why didn't I think of that?"

This is an amazing book that has the potential to give every reader a new perspective, and greater understanding into his or her own behavior.

This is a very valuable explanation of one of the core problems in our society. We are stuck on instant gratification to the exclusion of the bigger, more important issues in life. This book explains how this happens and what to do about it. I recommend it to my therapy clients routinely.

I started the book to learn about how to cope with the food pleasure trap, but i learned much more. I learned about the relativity of our senses and it's implication about how we perceive food, about our ancestral history and its implication upon our modern life, also about happiness in it's biological sense, and the diference between happines and pleasure, and some other pleasure traps like recreational drugs and not working out.

A good read to help round out your knowledge on nutritional eating. There are also books to supplement this one (Forks Over Knives) that expands your knowledge base. This may be for you if this is your thing.

When ever I'm feeling bogged down or in need of a reset, I naturally turn to fasting. It's the fastest and most effective way for me to get back to 'healthy'. Healthy eating habits, healthy BP, healthy mind... Fasting helps me to kick start my body back in the right. Recommended for anyone and everyone who'd like to see what their body can do for them when given the chance.

I could not put this book down, it makes sense on every level, it is all so simple really, we have TOO much and most of it is rubbish both in food and in possessions. We turn on the TV and are bombarded with greasy fat laden food to tempt us, and then by a barrage of harmful medications to cure the ailments that they bring. Since reading this book my weight is back to what it was in my twenties, and I lead a much simpler life and I can assure you it is so joyful. Thank you to the authors.

The Pleasure Trap is one of the better books available on health and nutrition. To start with, it's a book that combines existing, scientific facts about human evolution with nutrition.

This book enlightens us on a topic that's gaining a lot of ground in the last few years, which is why we eat unhealthy foods and get addicted to them.

However, typically other books like "The End of Overeating" or "Mindless Eating" have always stated that it the solution is not to stop eating the crap, but just eat less of it. This is a solution that reveals more about the authors' own bad habits than what true science has to say about what we should be eating.

Pleasure Trap shows you why we get addicted to certain foods but also what is the healthiest diet we can eat. The authors recommend a whole-food, vegan diet that has nothing to do with the typical "junk food" diet most vegans eat. It's a pretty rigorous lifestyle to follow, but you'll reap the rewards.

No matter how you choose to eat after you're done with this book, you'll know a bit more about why certain foods are addictive and will likely make better choices as a result.

Simply Transformational. This book has helped me realize the health benefits of eating a natural diet of whole fresh fruits, vegetable, grains, and nuts. It also is helping me break free from unhealthy and unnatural foods like potato chips.

The only complaint is that the book would have benefitted from better editing. It's a bit repetitive but on a positive note that drives home the main points. It has opened my eyes up to the benefits of fasting that I have now added to my agenda to explore further.

Sheds much light on why people are so self centered, gluttonous, lazy , and sick.

Very good book for getting at the root of why people and their pets are fat and sick while in nature animals are usually fit and healthy.

It shows the ways we fool our body into eating too much by using processed foods are bodies weren't designed to cope with.

We don't sleep enough because we trick our bodies with lights.

And we don't move a muscle because of agriculture and the industrial revolution enables us to sit on our butts and press buttons instead of doing any physical work.

We weren't designed for that type of life.

Based on Darwinian Phsycology.

If you read "Eat to Live" you'll like this book.

This book echoes and elaborates on many of the problems I felt existed but found hard to explain. Once your eyes are opened and you look at things with a new perspective you will be shocked (repulsed actually) at some of the excesses that surround us and wonder how you were blind to it for so long. Very easy read that I highly recommend.

This book was great for people who need to understand why they have cravings for certain foods and what happens inside our body with cravings. The information could have been explained in half the content. It appears they were thinking "What do we do now, we need a bigger book" so they just re-hash the same information. I am glad I purchased and read it but there was way too much fluff in here.

Though the writing is very simple and thus a little of an insult to my academic brain, I must say that whatever is being said makes a lot of sense and I would advice this as a read to anyone seriously intending to make a change in their lifestyle and bring some rationality into the irrational consumption madness! ;)

Most people are stuck in the pleasure trap. Unfortunately, they are not aware of the trap. So, without an understanding of it, it's impossible to make a change. Dr. Lisle explains the trap in great detail. He also tells you how to escape this trap. If you are trying to lose weight and be healthier, I highly recommend this book.

One caveat: Dr. Lisle is a vegan. You do not need to become a vegan to escape the pleasure trap.

I expected to learn habits of eating while learned so much more. I love the style. Eating patterns are explained started since the world was created ;) but that's exactly what I appreciate. Worth the time!

This book is a must own. Do you ever wonder why you are drawn to eat what would be considered "not the wisest choice"? The Pleasure Trap takes a direct yet simple approach in explaining why we eat the way we do and why we desire certain foods over others. This book explains in digestible terms how to eat for health and how it will eventually be pleasurable. Dr. Lisle is an amazing wealth of knowledge. I recommend that you sleep with this book under your pillow.

The book is well written and worth reading and seems to uncover the answer dieters are looking for. It talks a lot about history and ties in what world religions have known for a long time, that excess leads to unhappiness.

This has to be one of the most brilliant books I've ever read. I could read it a dozen times and learn something new every time. It explains so much. I've already recommended it to several people from psychology professionals, to those who work in nutrition, to those who treat eating disorders. If only everyone would read this book, I truly believe we wouldn't have nearly as much of a problem with obesity and food issues as we do today.

This book explains better than anything I've read so far, why we are getting fatter as a nation and why it is such a struggle to lose weight. The first couple of chapters get off to a slow start, but if you persevere you will be richly rewarded with what you truly need to do to lose weight and/or return to health if you have high blood pressure or cholesterol caused by being overweight. Additionally, the same mechanisms that are at work making it hard for us to control our eating are the same ones at work with addictions to other substances. There is a lot to learn from this book.

This book was a great complement to the China Study, The Starch Solution, and Prevent and Reverse Cardiac Disease. It was more scientific than I expected, but from a different perspective than the other titles I noted. The concepts were clearly laid out in a way that reinforced the whole foods, animal, dairy and oil free path I've embarked on. Thanks Doug Lisle, for the reinforcement and new information!

Read this book if you have always wondered why it is hard to make healthy changes - AND if you'd like to figure out how to make healthy changes for good. This book has made the biggest difference in not only my health but in my thinking and for my emotional well being.

I loved this book; it explains a lot of the reasons why we overeat and shop and do pleasureable things to excess; it helped me to take a look at what is really going on in our society; and how I can take more control of my own pleaure traps; and break free!

The Kindle edition of this book is flawed. Some sentences begin in the middle of a statement. Some sentences, or sentence fragments end suddenly, and without punctuation. A few larger segments are displaced. Who knows what else is missing, or moved, or screwed up?

That said, this is an excellent book. It's very ambitious, and tends to be a big picture book, so the view it presents is more the forest than the trees. As such, there are small points with which I might quibble if I didn't like the large view the book presents so well.

It's an easy, and fast read, too, and written well.

Why has the store not had the Kindle edition fixed. This is not the first review to mention the problems?

Exceedingly enlightening and useful book. This, along with _The Veganist_ is my favorite reading material of late. You will think differently about all your habits with respect to food, after reading this. Highly recommended, not to be missed.

This book was a real eye opener for me. Probably my biggest aha moment was the simple, easy to understand explanation of the 3 satiation mechanisms of the body. I think when something is explained in such a straight-forward way, and presented so logically, it really resonates with the reader. In general, what I liked about this book was the writing quality. It really was well written, and easy to read, yet it contains truths that are mind boggling.

I really think that 90% of this book is rock solid information. There may be 10% of the book that isn't as solid and in my opinion might have been better being left out. Or maybe the ideas are just so foreign to my American way of thought, they are easier to reject. Regardless, I highly recommend this book to anyone seeking truth about nutrition and health. It has helped usher me into a new age of health and I hope to never look back.

This is a must read for anyone who struggles with their weight or wishes to eat in the healthiest way possible. It helped me to put the final piece together, and helped me lock in to the absolutely most effective way for me to eat. I feel like I'm running on rocket fuel. Also be sure to check out their videos on YouTube. Extremely helpful.

I really enjoyed the first three quarters of the book and learned an incredible amount. I am even tempted to give fasting a go to see the effects.

Last chapter or two weren't very good and I struggled to finish which was too bad because overall the book was great

This book was a real eye opener for me. Probably my biggest aha moment was the simple, easy to understand explanation of the 3 satiation mechanisms of the body. I think when something is explained in such a straight-forward way, and presented so logically, it really resonates with the reader. In general, what I liked about this book was the writing quality. It really was well written, and easy to read, yet it contains truths that are mind boggling.

I really think that 90% of this book is rock solid information. There may be 10% of the book that isn't as solid and in my opinion might have been better being left out. Or maybe the ideas are just so foreign to my American way of thought, they are easier to reject. Regardless, I highly recommend this book to anyone seeking truth about nutrition and health. It has helped usher me into a new age of health and I hope to never look back.

This is a must read for anyone who struggles with their weight or wishes to eat in the healthiest way possible. It helped me to put the final piece together, and helped me lock in to the absolutely most effective way for me to eat. I feel like I'm running on rocket fuel. Also be sure to check out their videos on YouTube. Extremely helpful.

I really enjoyed the first three quarters of the book and learned an incredible amount. I am even tempted to give fasting a go to see the effects.

Last chapter or two weren't very good and I struggled to finish which was too bad because overall the book was great

I wanted to give this book to everyone on my Christmas list. It's an excellent read for anyone interested in psychology or health. This book sheds light on human nature, why we do what we do, and how our behaviors have evolved. We have created for ourselves a life of ease and excess, which, unfortunately, has lead to our collective demise. Because of the way we are hard wired, it is understandable why we eat the way we do (cooked, refined, processed "foods"), for example, but it is very self destructive and goes against our better judgement. We as a species have set up a huge trap for ourselves and we are suffering as a result. It seems the only way to avoid the misery that is inevitable as a result of the diseases of affluence, is to go against the grain, back to what's natural and logical, back to eating what we were designed (or rather evolved) to eat: raw plant based foods. It's not a matter of chance. If we keep doing what we have been doing, it's not a matter of IF we will get a disease, it's WHEN. Disease as a result of eating garbage has become so commonplace we accept it as normal, but it hasn't always been that way, and it doesn't have to be that way now. It's not enough just knowing what to eat, and that we should exercise, drink water and get a good night's sleep. The Pleasure Trap explains why it's so hard for us to follow our own common sense, why we keep backsliding into counterproductive habits and how we can reverse the downward spiral of our own making. I learned a lot about myself and human kind, and I now have a better understanding of why I ate two bean and cheese burritos tonight after nearly 70 days of eating mostly raw plant based foods. I decided not to give this book to anyone after all. The sad fact is, few people care about these matters. They just want to loose weight as fast as they can while still eating the same stimulating "food" and wallowing in the same poor habits. We want to keep our cake and eat it as well. It's sad. This book will tell you why, for those of you who really care to understand yourselves and improve long term.

This book is very easy to understand and the concepts are easily applied. I particularly liked the section on how to deal with people who sabotage our efforts to improve ourselves. For example, there are those who may criticize your new, healthy way of eating out of simple ignorance. They don't mean any harm, and have your best interests in mind. They probably just think you are misinformed and want to make sure you aren't being an extremist. Sadly, eating raw plant based foods is considered extreme these days. Never mind it is how humans have been eating since our appearance on this planet thousands of years ago (and have only recently managed to completely mess up when we learned how to plant food and domesticate animals). Then there are the people who know you are doing the right thing for your health but they go out of their way to tempt you or make you feel bad because deep down, they are embarrassed by their own bad habits. They want you to be like them so they don't have to feel uncomfortable or inadequate. The Pleasure Trap offers very useful techniques for handling both of these types of people, you know the ones. They are always making us cookies when we go on a diet. This is a small section, but in my opinion, this portion alone makes the book worth reading. The whole book is excellent. Buy it for yourself for Christmas, or just because you care enough about yourself to make a change.

Healthy New Year!

A really deep insight into the mechanism at work that creates chronic disease in modern humans. We are unprepared as a species for our existing environment of plenty and only by understanding the ancient forces that drive our behavior can we hope to defeat them.

Author provides strong reasoning for limiting processed food and fast food choices in our diet. Seems well documented and includes shocking statistics. This is a well written book full of information important to everyone, and to our public health policies.

This book helped me to understand the physiological reasons behind my life-long struggle to control my weight. It is well written, well-documented and the historical context underscores its authenticity.

This book says what you know but, could not find the words to articulate. I you have and open mind and the ability to apply yourself to obtaining your health your on the right path. They recomend a cookbook thats important. It lacks the how to on fasting, menu planing and cooking but, gives you the most important the understanding and motivation. I recomend

"The Pleasure Trap" does a great job of explaining the "mechanics" of unreasonable, destructive behavior patterns.
Better yet, it reveals a little known way that uncountable numbers of people can break the chains of their addictive nature.

The diet and fasting the authors recommend are stellar, but this book is numbingly boring and repetitive. It's hard for me to leave a negative review because of the efficacy of their health plan, but OMG I cannot recommend this book.

I also think one of the basic premises of the book about addiction has been shown to be fallacious. Current research indicates that the roots of addiction are in deficits in other areas of life, namely social and emotional support. The famous Rat Park studies show this clearly. But the authors seem to think that foods with salt, oil and sugar are addictive in themselves.

I would have given 4 stars, but the Kindle version I bought has many errors, most of which cut off several sentences at the end of chapters every now and again. You would have thought the errors would be caught! If you want to buy the book and avoid errors, get the print version, not Kindle.

This book provides additional ideas to help you understand why you might get caught in a "pleasure trap"....any type of addictive behavior. Knowledge is power, and this should hopefully help you to add a bit more knowledge to increase your power to make good decisions for yourself and your body. However, it's not what I would call a 5-star book.

I would have given 4 stars, but the Kindle version I bought has many errors, most of which cut off several sentences at the end of chapters every now and again. You would have thought the errors would be caught! If you want to buy the book and avoid errors, get the print version, not Kindle.

This book provides additional ideas to help you understand why you might get caught in a "pleasure trap"....any type of addictive behavior. Knowledge is power, and this should hopefully help you to add a bit more knowledge to increase your power to make good decisions for yourself and your body. However, it's not what I would call a 5-star book.

Excellent Book! A Should Read for anyone & everyone. Huge at unraveling some of the reasons behind why we act the way we act, eat the things we eat and have the habits that we do and why sometimes they are so hard to adjust or break. Love this book!

I eat a plant based diet and I absolutely agree with his concept but I have found that 100% abstinence from sugar, salt and oil doesn't work for me. I can follow the plan for 6 weeks and then I'm binge eating all the foods I was avoiding. I actually really like the book Thin Side Out and I am naturally gravitating towards healthy foods because they make me feel good and not restricting myself.

The book is also boring. If you are a scientist, you'll like it. I understand the concept from skimming around but probably won't finish the book.

There wasn't any new information, I'm a vegan and read a lot of nutrition books. What surprised me is that the last few chapters are devoted to fasting. Seriously? I found that a complete turnoff. I would not recommend this book if you're like me...very interested in nutrition and have read and seen a lot.

When reading this book, I wanted to underline things on every other page and copy quotes onto Fb left and right. I wanted everyone I know to read this book! Granted, I have not followed the trail on every research reference to validate its message, but having read some research, I do believe in the message of this book.

I am giving it only 4 stars though because I don't think the title or subtitle gives a correct depiction of what the book is actually about. I'm not sure if it was titled to appeal to people roaming the market for yet another diet to save them from a life of obesity. I do think it delivers on what the title implies, but it's such a small part of what the book actually covers! Basically, I'm deducting a point for poor expectation management which I'm afraid will turn people off when they're not ready for the main message of the book - which is a shame.

Bottom line, I LOVED it.
My recommendation, don't judge it by its cover, you'll get more - and different - from what you expected.

This book is centered around a few good insights into human behavior, but the execution - in other words, the actual writing of the book around these concepts - is done so poorly that the whole package loses credibility. I have observed a better level of scholarship from "Prevention" magazine. There are constant one or two line statements which need at least a chapter of discussion and detailed justification - and where I know these one-liners to be incorrect from other readings on evolutionary biology, the credibility of the whole book comes into question. This is a shame, because there are some really good points about satiety and the biochemical basis for "happiness" as opposed to "pleasure". The authors also pad it out with irrelevant material (Edison's youth - interesting enough, but completely off the point) and laborious explantaions of concepts which the reader would surely be familiar with (anyone prepared to read about dopamine and serotonin already understands geometric progression!). They even repeat an entire page, word for word, of material presented earlier. The final straw is the plug for their clinic where you can be saved from your misguided instincts - this apparent ulterior motive calls their whole message into question. Reader, buy a copy of Burnham + Phelan's "Mean Genes" instead. It's better written, better researched and will give you some better coping strategies.

While the content of the book is interesting, the narrator completely destroyed it with her delivery! I can't imagine that they approved it! Were they trying to stretch it out to be a longer listen? Talk about a "slow taker" and "over actor"! Sheesh! It was almost comical how every single word was over exaggerated and every word that started with the "H" sound was drawn out so incredibly long! It kind of reminded me of Leave it to Beaver when Beaver was trying to ask a difficult question. Or better yet on 3 Men and a Baby how Tom Sellek was holding the baby in his arms and was reading a technical manual in baby talk to the infant so he could accomplish two things at once - not having time for a bedtime story he read his manual out loud like it was for a bedtime story. Yes, The Pleasure Trap was being read to a circle of 4 year olds with over emphasis on every word to hold their interest. Imagine Little Red Riding Hood being read: " Grandma! Your eyes are so big!"

At least you could increase the speed on audible, but it was just so distracting to me I couldn't concentrate on the content because of the delivery being so annoying!

“The Pleasure Trap” goes to the heart of the dangerous intersection of our modern society and our human biology.

With our evolutionary biology, we are physically designed to thrive on unprocessed foods, and to heal ourselves through rest and fasting, rather than medication.

In our modern society, we are sabotaging our health with high-fat animal products, refined sweeteners and refined carbohydrates, and relying on drugs and medical procedures to clean up the mess, with very limited success.

This is not to say that medication should be avoided in all cases. But in general, Western medicine has failed to stem the epidemics of heart disease, diabetes, obesity, cancer and autoimmune diseases.

As someone who adheres to a plant-based diet and engages in intermittent fasting, I can personally attest to the benefits of the practices that Lisle and Goldhamer recommend.

For some reason, though, the authors neglect to mention the obvious, overarching reason that explains why fasting is so beneficial for our health.
Simply put, digestion consumes a lot of resources, so when we free our bodies from that burden, more resources become available to power our bodies’ natural healing processes.

In the end, however, this book does a great job of showing how to align our lifestyles with our own biology.

This book makes sense in ways that I never could've comprehended. Thank you Dr's Lisle and Goldhamer for your continued work and dedication. It really gets into the science of how we're wired but it's done in a way that's not boring and a quick read. My Dad (73) and I just completed a 10 day water fast at True North in Santa Rosa and his blood pressure is down over 100 points and his joints feel better than ever. This was something we never would've been able to achieve with medication. And, his body isn't full of all those toxins! His understanding of the importance of this lifestyle really flipped when he read this book as well as The Starch Solution by Dr. John McDougall. People can argue the science all they want but facts are facts and living a whole foods plant based diet free of processed foods is the only way to true health and longevity with a high quality of life.

This book was an enjoyable read and provides some insight into the nature of addiction to food, chemicals and drugs. The authors' statistics on water fasting were also eye opening.

However there was quite a bit of repetition of the mantra, "Just eat a natural whole foods diet consisting of fresh fruits, vegetable, grains, beans, nuts and seeds and all problems will be solved." This may or may not be true but the authors insist on this as gospel based on papers like the Framingham study and Colin Campbell's famous China study. Interestingly, there are other scientists who reference both of these studies to show how high dietary cholesterol levels do NOT promote arteriosclerosis. Even the authors' own studies show a graph where a vegan lifestyle had minimal impact on lowering blood pressure. This same chart showed that fasting was, by far, the most effective means at achieving low blood pressure.

The authors also argue that animal food is too concentrated in fats and proteins for biological mechanisms to sense satiety. But they contradict themselves when they mention that humans have built in sensors for the 3 macro nutrients (fats, proteins, sugars) and their relative caloric density. Hence one feels more full when eating less volume if the meal is higher in fat. This is clearly demonstrable in everyday experience if one is eating a "natural" fat (butter, cream etc) versus a processed one (vegetable oil, margarine, etc)

And what about the highly successful anti-cancer Gerson therapy with its inclusion of high amounts of calf liver juice and even cheese? And the equally successful Budwig formula (cheese again) and the Milk Cure? In addition, there was a recent study completed where those who consumed a diet high in full fat dairy had a 20% decrease in contracting type 2 diabetes.

Also there is some question as to how "natural" it is to be eating grains since they have to be processed (ground, mixed with water, fermented with yeast and baked) to be edible. And no matter how long beans are soaked and cooked there is always the accompanied dietary distress which also begs the question - is this a food meant for humans?

To sum up, the authors propose an interesting theory as to why humans have a need to "pig out" and the best way to resolve it. Despite the authors "overwhelming" evidence for a vegan lifestyle, there is equal and opposite "overwhelming" evidence that animal protein is not the cause of all disease. Perhaps it is not a necessary food group but that is a long way off from being harmful. This label may apply more to preservatives, GMO concoctions, drugs, hydrogenated oils, etc. This book's greatest contribution is the chapter on water fasting - its dramatic results and possible explanations as to why it works.

Content is so dominated by evolutionary-humanist perspective that it is bizarre anyone can maintain motivation to be healthy after reading this book.

Summary of the book:
1. You are an evolved monkey.
2. Society is structured to take advantage of your weaknesses for sugar, salt, and oil.
3. Accept that you are trapped, hence "pleasure trap."
4. Nevertheless, fight against the overwhelming tide of culture by eating bland vegan diet.
5. Die a few years later than the other monkeys.

This book offers nothing that cannot be found in other contemporary approaches to preventative health using plant-based nutrition. Your money is better spent on books by Barnard, McDougall, and Esselstyn. Or take the authors' own words "Modern-day heroes like Drs. Dean Ornish, John McDougall, T. Colin Campbell, Caldwell Esselstyn, Jr., William Castelli and others are conducting path-breaking research that consistently points to the same conclusion..."

Disclaimer: The author of this review loves eating a plant-based diet.

After reading The China Study, I was interested in learning further about health, nutrition and the current predicaments that we face in the age of instant gratification. I discovered this book and I felt like it was spot on when describing why humans crave and desire the things that can often be most destructive. This book really challenges most of our human emotional attachments. It is really eye-opening and it really made me question everyday "pleasures" that we as human beings seek in order to fulfill deeper internal needs. It is a great read and it is a book that ...after checking it out from the library so many times,I felt like I should finally just purchase it to own for myself. I would definitely recommend this to anyone trying to improve their physical and emotional health (most of us!) A very thought provoking book, even after several reads. Truly, a worthwhile investment.

This book deals, in plain talk, with the idea that food is pleasure. It is so because eating is the first order of business if we are to survive and we must be directed by our brain to seek it before all other activities. Therefore, for survival's sake, our brain seeks high calorie foods that can be obtained with the least amount of energy expenditure. It's a sort of cost/benefit analysis made subconsciously by our brains. So put out a plate of shelled nuts and some beautifully prepared carrots or celery and your brain will go for the nuts every time. Knowing this--and allowing for the vast amounts of high calorie, pleasure-laced foods available to us which require little or no effort to obtain--and you start to realize that we are living amidst an evolutionary time bomb. No wonder we face an obesity epidemic!

But wait! There's more. The problem has a multiplier effect: neuro-adaptivity. What's that? Walk into a dark room. Can't see a thing. Right? Wait a few minutes and your eyes adjust. Now you can make out shapes but if the lights come up, it's too bright until your eyes adjust back. That's neuro-adaptivity. What does this have to do with food? All these high reward, pleasure-laced foods start giving you less and less pleasure over time because your brain adjusts down. So you eat more and more of them in an attempt to recreate the pleasure of the first time you ate them. But your brain keeps adjusting down--same as with a drug addict trying to recreate his first high. Bam! That's the pleasure trap.

It's a sad thing too, because you're actually eating more high pleasure food and enjoying it less and less. By retraining yourself to eat simple foods, you will get back that pleasure with healthy foods without feeling denied in any way. It takes time (usually weeks) but it can be done.

The pleasure trap and calorie density are the two main principles you need to understand and master if you're to have control of your food and health.

The MOST useful book about nutrition I've ever read. He explains the biological (and other) reasons we eat and overeat salt, sugar and fat, he also explains how to stop it. Then he goes on to offer tips about social issues and how to deal with friends and family who want to "help".

Overall this book is well worth reading...at least the first part. If your a person who struggles with food addiction or cravings the first 100 pages will give you a wealth of understanding that, at least for me, greatly improved my willpower over junk food.

However, after 120 or so pages it becomes increasingly clear that the authors offer very little in the way of content and resort to not only telling the reader the history of the world and the human species from several different perspectives, but also the history of Elvis Presley and the invention of the light bulb.

This book will repeatedly tell you in various ways, over and over again, why you eat too much but not how to eat less. Fasting is apparently the key (which I'm sure is true) but they did not devote ONE WORD to telling you how to fast safely. And that is because they want you to come to their fat farm, TrueNorth in Northern California, to learn how at several hundred dollars a night. The web site is pretty blatantly promoted in chapter 16.

I would have a lot more faith in the book if it had taken out just one story about the male grey shrike and added a chapter about how to fast safely.

Although the evidence supporting a healthy diet and lifestyle is now becoming well established, many people find it difficult and sometimes impossible to do so. There are reasons for this. Some are a matter on convenience, some involve a perception of financing, some involve cultural and family tradition, but few are more important than the issue of taste preference.

The Pleasure Trap is very cleverly and professionally articulated by 2 experienced and professional authors to show that dietary change is a matter of our being prisoners to our perception of cultural preferences. We make right choices and suffer--so we believe--while we make the wrong choices and believe that it is pleasure.

Such behavior is a trap that is not in our best interests. It's also a matter of becoming addicted to our felt need for instant pleasure while sacrificing long term health and happiness. This is a crucial element of our behavior that many would like to understand and to put to good use. Read this book and you will get a good insight into what otherwise might appear to be a complex network of organic and social factors that, in reality, can really be quite simple.

Reading this book could be your ticket to a better life--all the way around!

I just started listening to the book and I must say that narration by AJ is quite disappointing. I love listening to audiobooks and I’m having a hard time listening to this one because of the annoying narration. I have nothing against chef AJ, I like her but really struggling to listen to this book.

I thoroughly enjoyed The Pleasure Trap. Plant-based whole-food eating is become very popular with numerous studies showing its efficacy in promoting health and reversing and preventing chronic disease. Implementing such a diet, however can be difficult since it requires lifestyle changes. The Pleasure Trap illuminates some of the reasons why eating healthful foods and avoiding unhealthy, concentrated foods can be psychologically difficult. The book is very readable and leaves the reader feeling empowered to make more healthy decisions. And make sure to read all the way to the end of the book! Highly recommended.

This book exposes the truth about modern medicine and how ineffective it is. A diet eliminating animal products does far more for our health than anything modern medicine can. Read this book along with "The China Study" by T. Colin Campbell, "Eat To Live" by Dr. Joel Fuhrman, and "Happy Herbivore" by Lindsay Nixon, and you'll never want to put another animal product in your body - ever!!

In general I think their recommendations are probably helpful, but I found it impossible to trust their data because whenever I tried to corroborate one of their statistics I found it to be completely wrong. For instance, on page 166 they claim coffee increases the risk of stroke, when actually it is protective. On page 39 they claim one in eight women will die from breast cancer, but that is how many will get it. Many fewer than half will die from it, according to the cdc statistics.

I just finished the book. I also just finished reading all the reviews. I witnessed the naysayers "throwing the baby out with the bathwater". Although I understand the complaint against human secularism as I am a Spiritual Believer, I also believe the truth as told within these pages, and also the "secret" divulged. The book is well written. If the reader can ascertain and entertain the notion of any type of evolution, even day to day survival within one's own lifetime, without getting defensive about "hanging out with the monkeys", The Pleasure Trap reveals secrets about our mal-adaption to modern day eating. For those of us who recognize the difficulty in staying healthy (truly balancing on the knife-edge) this book provides the answers.

I did my water fast in Panama. That's only because I didn't know about True North, although they were just up the road from me for 10 years. Far from a "shameless plug" I found the book to be polite and unassuming, yet powerful in its offerings. Its purpose clearly stated to offer the scientific proof of healing, the book delivers. No one can accuse 'The Pleasure Trap' of being emotional as becoming overly spiritual in this sense would have undercut the objective findings in this purpose. But, I can tell you that as a firm believer in God, I loved this book as it offers the missing piece of understanding.

"Happiness is the pursuit of worthwhile goals."

The Pleasure Trap explains, in a readable and entertaining way, the physiological difference between pleasure and happiness. Just to illustrate, Elvis Presley probably had the most pleasure of any human being on Earth, but he was not happy.

The Pleasure Trap is a unique and valuable book on several levels, concerning happiness, health, and food, to name a few.

It shows us where happiness comes from, and that pursuing worthwile goals is the way to achieve it.

The book also explains the concept of Pleasure Traps, which we were not confronted with before modern times. Our natural instincts, which directed us perfectly in ancient times, are not tuned to deal with the Pleasure Traps of unnaturally plentiful sweet and fatty foods, drugs, and many more modern temptations. These Pleasure Traps give us pleasure, but do not give us happiness, and often rob us of our health.

This book equips a person to take control of their health by recognizing the Pleasure Traps of unhealthful food.

I loved the book, and benefited greatly from it.

This book is largely a good summary of current research and thinking surrounding nutrition and health. Its "pleasure trap" angle goes into more detail about why it can be so difficult to swear off foods we know aren't good for us. It also provides helpful insights and strategies for dealing with that (see also Neal Barnard's "Breaking the Food Seduction.")

All the major medical players in nutrition and health-- T. Colin Campbell, John McDougall, Joel Fuhrman, Neal Barnard, Caldwell Esselstyn, etc.-- are included in the perspective represented here, so if you've read most of those folks, this won't seem revolutionary. But as a basic review of that literature and some solid help on changing habits and patterns, this book is a good read.

Certain suggestions for trying not to hit other people over the head with enthusiasm for healthy eating and living, while well-meanng, actually came off sounding almost manipulative (and irritating) in places. You don't have to be "holier-than-thou" to tell someone that current research is so compelling, disturbing, or enlightening to you that it prompted you to make some changes in your own life. Such a statement might be uncomfortable for some, but it seems more honest than trying to turn yourself into a pretzel to avoid triggering any discomfort or negative reaction whatsoever. That hesitating, oh-so-careful tone about communicating with others was annoying enough to give this book four stars. State your case as honestly as you can and leave it at that. That aside, good info here.

If you've ever wondered why "once you pop, you can't stop", you will find your answers in here. This eye opening look at why we do the things we do really drives home the idea of food addiction and how it impacts so many of us. It also provides hope for a way out. I really enjoyed this book.

Fascinating info on pain/pleasure maybe even Anthony Robbins left out!

Is one type of diet for all humans from different climates, genes and psychological make ups and other factors really based in reality? I would love to believe so. I'd like a scientific answer as well to this question: Are most people who are vegetarians and fasters healthier because thats what they do to make the body healthier, or...are fasters and raw food vegetarians just drawn to what 'seem" are healthier lifestyles? Its like the age od question....... do gymnasts get that muscular,fit look because they do gymnastics? Or....do only real slim and fit people wind up being attracted to gymnastics in the first place? I do believe that you cant cure peoples problems with drugs if drugs made them sick in the first place. Particularly psychiatric drugs. But.......would certain people not die when they pass a certain point of no return with their bodies dependence on drugs such as insulin, and other mind drugs like anti-depressants that keep many an unstable person from being dangerous in the workplace because diet and holistic things wont work anymore???????? So yes, they will live a shorter life span than the faster and raw food guy but they cant take that route or they would be dead twice as fast as the conventional medicine way??? In other words...is the promise that going back to nature a door still open to all or even most of us or do we still need a lot more studies despite big pharmas push towards NOTHING to do with the word natural in it!!!!?

I am basing my review based on the sample pages. I am considering going to the fasting retreat the author is affiliated with, and that might show me where the rubber meets the road. I hope you all do know that this retreat is based on the fact that fasting is even 2 levels above good or proper eating when it comes to eradicating disease by diet alone. I myself want to know if fasting along with proper diet can change ones total emotional outlook on life. After all, why put so much work into being healthy if you cant experience things to get you really crazy, really pumped up about waking up in the morning. I want to know how much fasting a d diet can influence that!!!

I am attending the Dr Lisle lecture soon so purchased the book. I read the book 88% and both times the book refused to download past 88%. I called and the store reloaded the book. It does not open past 88% which is disappointing. All the other books have loaded perfectly.

the store has since realized the book from the publisher is flawed. the store refunded my purchase price and I have returned the wireless book. I am very happy with the customer service through the store. I have purchased the hard copy of the Pleasure Trap plus attended the lecture.

i was expecting a greater range of temptations to be discussed than mostly food choices. i guess i was hoping more of this book would be about psychological drives and how to overcome a wider range of them. the book does go into some detail about our anthropological and biological backgrounds for the food choices we make and how our current environment of rich food choices confounds our natural instincts, leading us to unhealthy conditions from foods that our bodies were never prepared to consume in the quantities that we consume them. anyway, this book does add to the literature of the messages toward greater long-term health via whole foods and the value of occasional, monitored fasting to help the body recover and return to a healthier diet. in this world of many food temptations and fast foods, we need to hear this message.

This is similar to other classics in the area of nutrition. The secret is out, obvious and will anyone follow it. Easy to read and easy to understand, what you eat determines your destiny in terms of health. eating nothing is better than eating poisonous food or a standard American diet.

Essential information goes a little deeper than the online videos (which I recommend). A great explanation as to why we can't resist eating certain foods.

Following a whole foods, plant-based diet helped me regain my health and lose 80lbs. For information, just look up Dr. John McDougall.

This book provided me with an excellent understanding of how the Western World fell into the patterns of eating that are causing our modern diseases (obesity, diabetes, heart disease, cancer, etc.). It also explains how our taste buds can be changed to actually prefer the foods that our bodies are designed to eat to stay healthy(which I tested and found to be true). Armed with this knowledge, I have successfully cured my acid reflux and lost weight while eating foods that I now prefer over the burger and fries norm of the American diet.

This book shows a solution for me to get out of all food-traps I am in or might get in in the future. But what's more: it shows a way to live a healthy, free and happy life - if only you're willing to open your eyes to some truths and adapt your behaviour - I definitely am willing to do so. MUST READ - wish I had found it earlier.

Book is full of "stories" but little info that relates to the Title and subtitle. Disappointing. Description claims groundbreaking ways to change your life, diet and health. Shopping with a list and drinking lots of water isn't so groundbreaking in my opinion.

The author's starts with an over simplified paradigm then distorts it beyond any credible limit. I bought it on a recommendation from either the Engine2 Diet or the Forks Over Knives folks, I forget which, but there if you are concerned with improving diet, you will find no useful information in this book.

Only thing good about it was the marketing blurb to buy it. I thought this book had a great common sense concept, that modern living has distorted our senses. However, the authors use illogical reasoning to get to their “stretch” solutions and then questionable sentences appear. For example, doctors shouldn’t prescribe fever reducers (love to go to work with a fever!), seeing a chiropractor is better than taking an aspirin for back pain, fast. Very disappointing. Save your money.

I honestly don't know how to rate this book...the underlying principle is 100% correct. The comments on modern medicine and our pill for every ill culture are spot on. But then they get almost all the nutrition and diet recommendations as wrong as wrong can be. The studies they quote haven't held up to scientific scrutiny. No one but ride or die vegetarians/vegans would agree with most of what is stated as factual information. The self tests are equally skewed in that if you eat meat or healthy fats, you will score poorly. I wish someone would rewrite the underlying message of this book and leave out the unhelpful vegetarian propaganda and replace it with some solid nutritional science. I'll keep recommending Robb Wolf's Wired to Eat in the meanwhile.

I could not make it past the first 3 chapters and I tried really hard. It took way to much out if me. Asking me to overlook basic reasoning skills and I finally gave up. The point that was continually pushed is that it is pleasure that drives all of us people and animals in all situations. ALL SITUATIONS. In fact according to this author gazelles don't run from cheetas out of fear of pain and death but for seeking out the chance of future pleasure of propagation. Whereas anyone with any common sense or basic understanding of adrenalin and
the fight or flight survival instincts walk away thinking "boy this author must think we are all idiots"

Americans have been brainwashed by huge commerical interests when it comes down to national health concerns. This book spells trouble for those industries. I don't think that most Americans will switch their current diet ever, so let's keep investing our 401(K) options on BigMac, and Whoppers. Cheers!

This book has TOO MUCH evolution in it. If you believe, as I do, that man was created in the image of God (Genesis 1:27), you may be put off by all the references in the book to man evolving from apes. If I had known, I would not have bought it.
Mike's wife, Joy

Boring- using a lot of words to say nothing! I couldn't wait til I was done reading it. Lots of prehistoric nonscience- Disappointing to say the least- didn't learn much of anything new. WOULD NOT RECOMMEND!

We don't eat grains in our household but we are definitely plant based and meat supported. From a book review perspective, I couldn't deal with meat and processed foods lumped in the same category. We ate fresh (personally) caught trout from pristine northern waters with roasted beets and parsnips and organic greens with avocado oil and ume boshi for dinner last night. Tell me why the addition of animal protein makes this meal part of the pleasure trap? I think fishing in the sunlight for 3 hours, capturing and cooking up a wild fish with locally sourced veggies wouldn't be part of the pleasure trap compared to cooking up some grains that were grown for the purpose of convenience and shelf life. I'm a fan on quinoa and buckwheat, but I'm not convinced that our diet is lacking something because we don't eat them. The idea of the pleasure trap appealed to me, but I can't say that grains (and anything with a shelf life) isn't part of it. Convenience foods are largely bread: bagels, buns, sandwiches, pasta. They have shelf life and are cheap. They are recommended by the food pyramid. They are touted as low fat. People are living off of those - not salmon and grass fed beef/game or pastured eggs. Those are expensive, unavailable to most and (sadly) villainized by society. I think that's why we are getting sick. I couldn't agree with the book. I wanted too. It is a good debate though!

Let me save you $10. Eat when your hungry, stop when your full. Eat WHOLE foods, not crap. I do not believe removing meat and dairy from you diet is sound advise. Limit, yes, remove, no! We need real protein and your not going to get enough from beans, nuts, & seeds. End of story!

Initially, I was delighted to acquire this book, having just completed a major weight loss and total diet change. I went from the unhealthy "Standard American Diet" to a healthy vegan whole-grain dietstyle over the course of about three years. So, with that as a basis, I sought to learn more about how to keep this weight off and better understand the mechanisms that caused it in the first place.

I had heard generally good things about "The Pleasure Trap" and started reading it with high hopes... What a huge disappointment - and waste of time - to read this poorly written collection of sermons which pay homage to the god of evolution and secular humanism. The authors employ snippets encouraging healthy eating and care for oneself among their near-constant banging of the humanist drum (thankfully they do promote a plant-based diet and avoidance of alcohol and drugs). McDougall, Robbins, Ornish, et al, say it much better and without the humanistic appeals.

Rather than providing a balanced treatment of the whole body and mind, the authors focus on the physical - entirely ignoring the spiritual aspects of life, which are possibly most critical to good health. Instead, the writers choose to hang out in the ridiculous theater of man's alleged monkey heritage. In this book we read about our "ancient ancestors" and how "nature designed us", and that "billions of years" of history bears out the "adaptation" that makes us who we are today as humans - not just once, but repeatedly, ad nauseum. The message declares that we're nothing more than higher-advanced animals - and our "motivational triad" makes us utterly powerless to do anything other than seek pleasure, avoid pain, and conserve energy doing it (and don't worry if you miss that point the first time, you'll read it again and again and again.) Lisle and Goldhamer seem to be latching onto the old Arabic proverb, translated, "Repetition teaches the donkey".

To be fair, the authors include some small measures of actually sound information about diet and caring for one's health as this book tediously wends it way through the evolutionary love offerings... but regrettably they are few and far between. I'm sure their buddy Richard Dawkins must've sent them a box of cookies (animal crackers, no less!) as a reward for their faithfulness. And then at the end (spoiler disclaimer!!) the authors grieve us with not just one, but three chapters pushing their "water based fasting" and shamelessly advertising for their clinic.

NO THANK YOU - Lisle and Goldhamer have it all wrong. They've been deceived by Dawkins and his ilk, totally buying into the Big Lie; and I'll have none of it. I caution readers to fully investigate this book before bothering with it. Having been on this journey of weight loss and health restoration convinces me that it is a "whole person" matter - which includes spiritual connectedness to God. This is what gives purpose to the individual in all facets of life - not just avoidance of those "pleasure traps" into which we fall almost daily. Save your time and money.